Immigrants, Latinos and our soccer landscape (2)

Respecting others who did not read part 1 of this series and to remind theothers of what was discussed in part 1 we will start by summarizing part 1:

There are about 15-20 million Latinos or first-generation immigrants of both genders under the age of 18 whoare immersed in a soccer culture following their ancestral roots. Immigrants do include Latinos but are not restricted to Latinos. Also second- or third-generation Latinosand second-generation non-Latino immigrants could be left out of this picture since those are more adapted to the USA sports landscape and hence might not have as strong cultural ties tosoccer as the first or second generation ones. 

The Latinos’ geographical distribution is to the west of the Mississippi River – close to the Mexican Border – andat the tip of the Florida peninsula. Non-Latino immigrants might have a more even distribution around the country but there are no studies on that.

In these articles, we will tryto see whether the system has a good access to the Latino and immigrant population of our country. Naturally, we are making an assumption here that these Latino and immigrant boys or girls have agreater affinity to soccer than the other racial constituents in our society.  

To begin with there is no direct study or research done to address the question of theaccessibility of the above-mentioned group of boys and girls into our soccer system. 

There are two studies that might help us. Let us look at two quotes from the Aspen Institute’s report and let us analyze:

1. “While Latinos below the age of 18 make up 25 percent of the US population within that age group, they comprise only 12.3 percent of male and 7.4 percent of female NCAA soccer players.”

Although the 25% quoted above isnot in line with Census Bureau results of 2018. According to the Bureau as of July 1, 2018, 18.1% of the USA population is Hispanic. 22.6% of the USApopulation is under the age of 18.” 12.3% of the male and 7.4% of the female population playing NCAA soccer is well below the U.S. average of Latinos. This is the only data that showsaccessibility of the Latinos for both genders into the college soccer system and it is not very promising.

2. “That was made evident in 2015 whenjournalist Roger Bennett and University of Chicago economics professor Greg Kaplan produced a study comparing the background of each US men’s soccer nationalteam member from 1993 to 2014 with every NBA All-Star and NFL Pro Bowl player over the same period. Socio-economic data from the players’ hometown zip codes were compared. The study found thesoccer players came from communities that had higher incomes, education and employment rankings, and were whiter than the US average. The NBA and NFL players came from communities that ranked lowerthan average on those same indicators.

For instance, the median household income for the hometowns of 2008-14 U.S. men’s soccer players was $68,266, wellabove the U.S. average ($52,762) and the hometowns of NBA All-Stars ($52,701) and NFL Pro Bowlers ($51,139). Household income for the communities of 2008-14 U.S. soccer players was down 6 percent from1993-97, when soccer hometowns had an even greater gap with elite NFL and NBA players. Kaplan said via email that the study, first reported by The Guardian, was never published or widelydisseminated.”

The first study – which nobody can lay a hand on for a complete and comprehensive look – is only for the male gender. It is obvious from theresults of the study and from my personal subjective observations that elite male soccer players come from whiter – non Latino – families and their families are wealthier better educatedand better employed than elite basketball and football players.

This all what the study says: A very strong statement but does not serve our purposes completely.

There is another more recent study (Jamie Hill February 2019) in American Soccer Now. This study talks about the geographical distribution of elite men players, namely players who were developed by the U.S. youth development system and play in a professional club. Unfortunately, thisstudy does not address the female elite players or the ethnicity of players.

“The data used in this analysis was assembled in the following fashion:

• Allactive professionals as of fall 2018, which means MLS and USL players are classified with their 2018 clubs and foreign-based players are classified with their club in the fall of the 2018-19season.
• Players are organized by metropolitan area of origin, as defined by the U.S. Census. In a few cases, where players came from rural areas, they are organized by micropolitan area,also defined by the U.S. Census.
• The metropolitan area of origin is based on where a player grew up, not where he was born.
• All players who grew up in a metropolitan area arecounted, even if they play for another country or don’t have U.S. citizenship. Likewise, American players who developed abroad were excluded from this analysis.”

According to the study:

1-2.5 M

Location	Definition	No. Of Cities	No. Of Players	Population	Player/Pop.
Small Cities	Less than 1M	103	183	44.113 M	241,057
Midsize Cities	27	156	46.013 M	294,955
Big Cities	Over 2.5 M	23	598	133.476M	223,204
Total		153	937	223.692 M
Average					238,732

1. Thereare 937 players in 153 different localities.  That might not be a big number for the country of our size but if you look at the number of professional soccer clubs (57) in the USA (even thoughyou add those who play for foreign teams), then it does not surprise you.
2. These 153 localities have a total population of 223 million people. (It represents 68% of the USpopulation.)
3. There are 10 states that did not develop a single male professional player
4. The average is one professional player is developed per 238,732people. So big cities (223,204) were better developers than midsize cities (294,955), surprisingly the small cities (241,057) were better in developing professional players than midsizecities.

Both studies (Kaplan & Bennett 2015 and Hill 2019) exclude women in their analysis. On adding a more robust gender lens, my suggestion would be to get a statisticabout the prevalence of Latinas in youth sport landscape in general. I think there are inferences that can be made. The best resource for this is probably LA84’s Increasing Young Latinas Participation in Sport report.

In 2008, a national survey of third- through 12th-graders by the Women’s SportsFoundation found that 75 percent of white girls play sports, compared to less than two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic girls, and about half of Asian girls. And while boys fromimmigrant families are well-represented in youth sports, less than half of girls from those families are playing. The gender gap is also worse in urban schools and among kids from low-income families.

In the last and third sequel of this serieswe will look into the objective data of Jamie Hill and its relation to the Latino and immigrant population of our soccer landscape. We will also discuss some subjective data based on my personalobservations in Texas.

Until then…

Ahmet Guvener (ahmet@ahmetguvener.com) is the former Secretary General andthe Technical Director of Turkish FA. He was also the Head of Refereeing for the Turkish FA. He served as Panel member for the FIFA Panel of Referee Instructors and UEFA Referee Convention. He nowlives and works as a soccer consultant in Austin, TX.